


White Gold

by Providentia67



Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Clumsy Gon Freecs, Cybernetics, Families of Choice, Friendship, Gen, Human Experimentation, Oblivious Gon Freecs, Protective Killua Zoldyck
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-26
Updated: 2019-08-19
Packaged: 2020-05-20 00:30:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19366642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Providentia67/pseuds/Providentia67
Summary: Space seemed awfully lonely in Gon’s eyes.All dark and empty and the stars so very far away from one another.  He had to wonder if they ever looked out at each other and wished they could be closer.  Leorio would say he was being silly, feeling sorry for massive spheres of burning plasma, but he couldn’t help it.  To Gon, loneliness was the worst fate of all.Traveling as the hired muscle of an ancient, pieced-together space cruiser, Gon and the crew of the Paladiknight find an escaped remnant of an old and dangerous experiment.





	1. Chapter 1

Space seemed awfully lonely in Gon’s eyes.

All dark and empty and the stars so very far away from one another.  He had to wonder if they ever looked out at each other and wished they could be closer.  Leorio would say he was being silly, feeling sorry for massive spheres of burning plasma, but he couldn’t help it.  To Gon, loneliness was the worst fate of all.

In the zero-gravity chamber of the _Paladiknight_ , running through the intensive sets of training regimen -Leorio wouldn’t let him anywhere with gravity anymore- he tended to get a bit too deep into his own head.  The sweat beaded off Gon’s brow in perfect droplets to be sucked up by the ship’s filtration system and the sight of it transfixed him. Gon didn’t particularly like space, but that didn’t stop him from being fascinated by it.

On Whale Island, he’d never even seen anything more impressive than the odd cargo freighter.  But now that he was traveling with Leorio and Kurapika, there was no end to the strange and wonderful things he could experience.  Gon finished his set by kicking off the ceiling of the gravity chamber and unleashing a flurry of punches and kicks before reaching the ground.  A twist of his wrist activated the magnetic plates in his boots and anchored him to the floor. Just in time too, the path of the ship’s circulation system brought with it a whiff of something delicious.

Kurapika must be cooking.

“Gon!  Leorio!  Food’s ready!”

“Alright!”  He didn’t need to be told twice.  Snatching the floating green fabric of his shirt from where it had drifted towards the door, Gon left the 0-G chamber, adjusting to the shift in his balance as he came back under the effects of gravity.  The grating of the floor rocked as he sprinted down the curved halls toward the lounge and kitchen area. One neat jump over a pile of old-fashioned paper books and he was skidding to a halt before the bar table separating the adjacent decks of the ship from the kitchen.

He snatched the nearest utensils into either hand and braced himself for whatever delicious concoction their resident Kurta had cooked up.  

“Sit down, Gon.  Or you’re not getting anything.”

“Oh, right.”  Gon dutifully leapt into one of the bar stools and once again assumed his position.  From the raised seat he could make out a beautiful NGL-bred fish that was just beginning to brown.  “Leorio!” Gon called up towards the tunnel leading to the bridge. “Get over here, or I’m gonna eat it all!”

The great pile of books flooding the pilot’s seat somewhere above Gon and Kurapika’s heads shifted and a head of spiked black hair peaked out.  “Okay, okay, on it! Gon, don’t you dare eat everything. I’m starving!”

“Relax you two, I made sure to make enough for everyone.”  Kurapika turned from the ambient stove and produced three plates of fish, one piled particularly high with four browned bass.

“Ooh, mine, mine, mine!”  Gon lunged for the overflowing plate and Kurapika handed it over without fuss.  He and Leorio watched Gon dissect his meal with their normal horrified fascination while they made their own way through at a more sedate pace.  

While Gon stuffed his face, Kurapika poked at a stray scale on the counter and looked to their ship’s pilot.  “So,” he said, blond hair drifting across the front of his face. “How are we doing in terms of progress?”  

“Hm?”  Cheeks full and only half paying attention, Gon glanced over to see Leorio fidget with the ancient pair of spectacles the man insisted on wearing instead of getting corrective modification like any other sane person.  Something about saving money.  

Leorio sighed.  “We’re getting there, but the trip to M3-X is still going to take a few more stops.  We’ll need to take on a few jobs along the way.”

Disappointment clear, Kurapika wilted.  “We’re going to lose them.”

“I know.”

“And we were so close in Yorknew.”

“I _know,_  Kurapika.”

“It’ll be okay.”  Gon blinked when both of the older boys looked to him with confusion.  “If the Phantom Troupe gets away we’ll just find them again.” It seemed simple enough to him, Gon wasn’t sure why Kurapika always seemed to be in such a hurry.  

The tension in Kurapika looked to ease at Gon’s words, and he released the vice grip he’d taken on his spoon.  “You’re right, Gon.”

Satisfied, Gon turned to Leorio.  “Are there any jobs around here? I’ve been itching for something to do.”

“There sure are.  Found one that should be a cinch too.”  Pleased that someone had cut the tension in the room, Leorio pulled a collapsible monitor from his back pocket and flipped it open for the other two to see.

Gon pretended to study the messy collection of dots and lines that made up the star chart.  Nodding in time with Kurapika. All he could really tell by looking at it was that there was something important where the blinking red dot was.

Kurapika propped his elbows on the table and tapped his chin.  “From the Zaban System, huh?”

“Yep.  Locals put out a request for someone to check out an unidentified craft floating in their upper atmosphere.”

Gon’s ears perked.  “A UFO!”

“That’s right.”  Leorio clicked his fingers and gave Gon a thumbs up.  “Figured you’d like it. Already accepted the job and put the coordinates into the computer.  We’ll be there in a few hours.”

“Yes!”  Stuffing the last of his food into his mouth, Gon muffled a quick ‘thank you for the meal’ to Kurapika before racing off to his quarters.  The messy two-bed apartment had originally been meant as a set of crew quarters, but seeing as the population of the _Paladiknight_ was limited to three, Gon had the entire space to himself.  And he’d dutifully filled it with as much as he could carry from his home on Whale Island and a collection of knicknacks he’d picked up since joining the ship.

Pushing aside the collection of messy clothes on his bed, Gon fumbled in the dark for his fishing rod and the picture of his Aunt Mito.  Flipping the frame around, he felt along its lower edge for the hidden compartment. His finger caught, and and from it Gon pulled out an official Hunter’s license. Without it, he wouldn’t be able to file the job as complete, and Leorio would be pretty angry if they ended up not getting paid again.

Slipping the titanium plate onto a chord which he slung around his neck, Gon skipped from his room and made for the bridge.  He didn’t bother activating the mechanism to lower the ladder down from the tunnel in the lounge. One good jump brought him high enough to snatch the lowest rung and scurry his way up without help.  Kurapika was already there, sitting in the copilot’s seat and helping Leorio prepare for the drop into real space.

To keep from bouncing around in excitement, Gon brushed a few of Leorio’s books from one of the free chairs and took a seat.  Attaching the complicated array of buckles that would keep him from becoming paste on the window when the ship dropped speed.

“Okay men, entering real space in three… two… one!”  

Kurapika and Leorio braced themselves as the ship hurtled to a stop, the blur of stars around them sliding into stationary points in the distance.  The two rocked forward with small grunts while Gon simply let his body roll forward, otherwise stiff from excitement.

Before them, taking up half of their viewing screen, loomed the metropolitan planet of Zaban.  From outside the orbital zone, all that could be seen of the planet were the blinking lights and massive metal domes of the local spaceports.  There wasn’t an ounce of green or blue except for the planet’s two poles where civilization seemed to abruptly stop. Gon’s mouth dropped in awe.

“Amazing,” he said, breathless.  It never got old, seeing new planets.

“Leorio, do we have a location for our UFO?”

“Working on it.”  Leorio fiddled on one of the panels of the captain’s chair and suddenly the view screen was cluttered with a collection of gridlines and mathematical calculations.  “Here we go.” The screen cleared again and this time there was a small red ring out in the distance. Leorio made a few adjustments again, and the ring enlarged to reveal what looked like a drifting satellite.

Kurapika leaned forward.  “Is that some sort of space station?”

“Nah, looks way too small.”  Leorio scratched at the day-old stubble that was beginning to grow on his chin.  “Satellite maybe?”

“Scans show a single lifesign.  Escape pod?”

Patience thinning, Gon jumped out of his chair.  “Who cares? I wanna go see!” Gon dropped out of the bridge without waiting for the others to agree.  Then he booked it for the airlock. Over the ship’s PA system, he could hear Leorio grumbling.  

_“Just be careful out there, okay Gon?  We don’t know what that thing is and it might have something dangerous onboard.”_

“Got it, guys.  Don’t worry.” Gon slipped his skin tight blue space suit on and checked the oxygen levels like Kurapika had shown him.  The supply was only half full, but that would still give him well over six hours. Long enough to at least check the UFO out before he had to go back.  Satisfied, Gon climbed into the airlock and watched as Leorio positioned the ship to extend its umbilical.  

A tunnel extending from the _Paladiknight_ stretched out and connected itself around the stationary airlock of the adjacent spacecraft.  After a few moments where Gon could feel the ship beneath him shift to synchronize its movements with the UFO and the soft hiss of depressurization, the light in the airlock turned from red to green and Gon was good to go.

Pulling the hatch open to the connecting tunnel, Gon deactivated the magnets in his boots and let himself drift upward.  A soft kick against the _Paladiknight_ and he was sailing forward towards the UFO.

 _“Hey, Gon.”_ Leorio’s voice could be heard in the radio of Gon’s helmet.  _“Kurapika was able to find some information on this thing.  Apparently it’s a kind of mobile research station originally found in the Republic of Padokia.  The model was decommissioned years ago, but our lifesign might be a researcher. So keep an eye out for stasis pods.”_

Gon fell against the hatch of the research station and oriented himself upright.  “Got it, Leorio.” The handle of the airlock refused to budge so, Gon activated his boots again and gave the door a solid pull.  There was screech of metal, and the door folded outward just enough for Gon to slip through and into the main body of the craft.

“Whoa, guys.”  Gon gaped as he took in the vast array of computer screens and tanks that made up the central chamber of the research station.  “This place is pretty cool, take a look.” He flipped on the flashlight and camera of his suit and gave the two men still on the _Paladiknight_ a 360 degree view.

_“This stuff looks state-of-the-art.  Kurapika, I thought you said this kind of station was from at least a decade ago?”_

Gon strode up to a floor to ceiling tank of shimmering blue liquid and gave the glass a tap.

 _“Gon!”_ Leorio hissed.  _“Don’t break anything!”_

“I didn’t!”  Gon snatched his hand back and crossed his arms.  “Meanie.”

 _“It is old,”_ Kurapika cut in.  _“But you’re right, given the level of technology in there, my best guess would be that whatever was going on here was definitely illegal.  Why else would someone abandon such valuable equipment?”_

_“Great!  Maybe whoever’s in there has a bounty on their head.  Gon, keep looking and see if you can find anyone.”_

“Right.”  Gon abandoned the lab area for the time being and continued to poke around.  A second set of pressurized doors locked with biometric scanners seemed promising.  So Gon tore the door off its hinges and made his way down another long tunnel that was so starkly white it was nearly blinding.  At the end of the tunnel was a circular room that was empty except for the single, cylindrical pod resting in its center.  

“I think I found the stasis pod.”

If Kurapika or Leorio had anything to say about what they were seeing through his helmet, Gon didn’t hear.  He was too transfixed by what was before him. Unlike most of the stasis pods he’d seen, this one was filled with the same blue-tinged fluid Gon had found in the tanks back in the main lab.  And inside, was a single individual, submerged and floating with no sign of any kind of breathing apparatus or life support.

He was pale, as far as Gon could see.  Hair and skin such a stark white Gon had to wonder if he'd ever been exposed to sunlight.  Gon leaned forward so close the faceplate of his helmet knocked against the pod’s shell. “It’s a kid.  Like me.”

_“The hell is a twelve-year-old doing in a stasis pod on an abandoned research station?”_

_“I think that’s a question for another time, Leorio.  Gon, can you see any kind of life support device? What’s keeping him alive in there?”_

“Oh!  Uh,” Gon pulled back and crawled around looking for anything that seemed like a control panel for the pod.  “I can’t see anything. But it looks like the pod is detachable.” Which meant whatever _was_ keeping the boy alive in there was self-sustaining.  

_“Good.  In that case go ahead and bring the pod back here.  We’ll let the local authorities know what we found and cash in.  Good job, Gon.”_

“Right, okay.”  Gon climbed back up to his feet and absently set his hand on the pod’s surface.  “Well, it was nice to meet you,” he said down to the unconscious boy.

He turned away, bending down to activate the pod’s mobility function, when he heard a small _thud._

“Huh?”  Gon perked back up and looked down into the pod.  A slender, pale hand had pressed itself in line with Gon’s.  Then his focus drifted up, pulled as if by some invisible force.

Inside, the boy’s eyes were open.


	2. Chapter 2

Aunt Mito had always told Gon that his instincts would either get him killed or save his life one day.  She’d said so in a fit of exasperated amusement, but also in what was to be a futile attempt to get her nephew to try to think before he acted. Unfortunately, despite his best efforts Gon could not help the simple and earnest determination that was the core of his being.  Not even when doing so might be in the best interest of all involved.  

And it was that same drive that drowned out the ghost of his aunt’s chiding voice when Gon’s earthy brown eyes met startling starlight blue.

Three things went through Gon’s mind very quickly.  First, the boy in the pod was awake. Second, there was no sign of a breathing apparatus providing him any kind of oxygen.  And third, Gon was eighty percent sure he wouldn’t be fast enough to catch the flying harpoon he could spy flying in his direction through the reflection of the pod’s surface.

That didn’t mean he wasn’t going to try though.

As it turned out, he was right.  Gon flinched as his hands closed around nothing and shards of what was most likely transasteel caved in around the thick metal shaft that had only just missed his helmet.  Debris blew outward from the shatterpoint and Gon drew his arms inward to a guard position. It hurt, and the blue liquid now sloshing out from the inside the pod was as cold as the vacuum of space outside, but at least he was still alive.  Better yet, his suit managed to escape any fatal tears. Liquid swathed from the interior of the pod, creating a wall of blue that floated up and masked Gon’s view of the boy inside.

_“Gon!”_ He could just hear Leorio shouting through the rushing of blood in his ears.

Very quickly Gon snapped out his instinct-driven blur.  He ignored Leorio and pivoted on his anchored feet in the direction the projectile had come from.  Standing on the far end of the hallway leading to the pod chamber was a man in another spacesuit. Gon bit his lip, the man was carrying a _very_ large gun.

“Damn, missed.”  The man pulled out another giant harpoon -about a meter long- and loaded it into the weapon’s barrel.  “Do me a favor kid, and hold still this time. Less damage done to the place, the more we can get for this junker.”

_“Gon, they’re pirates.  Forget the pod, you need to get back to the_ Paladiknight _right away.”_   Kurapika sounded like he was speaking through gritted teeth.  Never a good sign, and there was a hollow sounding thud that set the station rocking.  Gon acknowledged the fact that he should probably just do what he was told. But still… 

_“Hurry, Gon.”_ The pirate was taking aim at him as shards of transasteel and droplets of blue liquid floated past Gon’s shoulders.

There was a chance the boy was still alive back there.

The harpoon flew loose, almost faster than Gon could track with his eyes.  But he knew what to expect this time. Instead of trying to catch the projectile, Gon dropped to his back, released the magnets of his boots, and threw himself back up, feet over hands.  Another twist of his wrist and his boots magnetized, drawing him even faster upwards until they struck the narrow bar and then carried him even further to the top of the chamber.

“What the-”

Gon didn’t give the pirate time to recover, racing forward along the top of the corridor, and dropping into an ax kick as he reached the other side.  The man collapsed under the blow, and Gon winced at the sound of his helmet cracking and the hiss of oxygen as it began to escape.

“Sorry,” Gon murmured, but he’d seen too much death to be phased more than that.  Instead he turned and rushed back to the shattered pod.

_“Gon!  There’s no time, get back here!”_

He couldn’t even begin to see if the boy had been hit through the mass of blue liquid surrounding the broken pod, so he didn’t try.  Gon deactivated his magnetic plates and pushed himself straight through it, breaking the wall of blue and looking down. There was a flash of something white and fast and suddenly an incredibly dense weight collided with the back of Gon’s neck.

He cried out, and everything went black. 

  


_“... -on. ~~~  Go- ...Gon... !  Y~~ … wake- ~~~ Gon!”_

He came to all at once.  Gon jerked and groaned as his head smacked against the hard surface of the station’s ceiling where he’d drifted.  His vision swam, and when he managed to focus he found the view little better as he took in the fogged surface of his faceplate.  A distressing crack bisecting the transasteel from one corner to the other was emitting a soft hissing sound. In his ear, his radio crackled.  He could hear snippets of Kurapika and Leorio shouting his name, but it was horribly disrupted by static. There was a red light casting a shadow over what he managed to see through his helmet and he fumbled for the inside of his suit’s right arm.

The bar indicating his oxygen supply was so diminished Gon could barely make out the sliver of its thin red line.  “Oh no.”

His head swiveled back and forth to try and find the pod and the boy inside.  But when he did manage to zero in on it, the chamber was empty.  

The inside of his wrist was beginning to beep a warning, so Gon sucked in a huge breath.  His record back home had been around nine minutes and forty-four seconds. Long enough, hopefully to make it back to the _Paladiknight._   Anchoring his feet to the ceiling, Gon pivoted on his heel and started running back the way he’d come, dodging bits of floating debris and the pirate’s limp body as he went.  He sprinted through the white passageway and dove through the door he’d torn open on his way in. A flip on his way up, and Gon was back to standing on the ground.

He would have kept going, the connecting umbilical was just on the other side of the lab’s main chamber, but Gon stopped as he caught sight of who else was standing there.

Or more specifically, who used to be standing there.  Littered around open chamber, bodies in similar suits to the pirate Gon had faced before floated aimlessly.  Some with suits crushed inward and others ripped to shreds with darkened streams of blood trailing upwards from their limbs.  Gon squeaked in surprise, accidentally losing almost half his oxygen in a shocked gasp. More pirates, he suspected, edging his way cautiously around a body that had been thrust head-first through one of the computers on the wall.

Then the whole satellite rocked, and Gon raced the rest of the way through, crawling through the bent open airlock back to the umbilical.  From there, he could make out the long, cylindrical body of the _Paladiknight_ waiting for him as it engaged with a much bulkier looking cruiser.

_“Where~~~  you, Gon? We can’t hold on much~”_

The whole complex rocked again as a stray rocket was knocked off course and struck the side of the _Paladiknight._ The ship was pushed into an uncontrolled spin and Gon lunged wildly, momentum sending him into a tailspin as the docking side of the umbilical was torn loose of the orbiting satellite and he fell head over heels into the abyss of space.

His stomach lurched, and Gon fought the urge to vomit as he activated his magnets, hoping he hadn’t drifted too far to be drawn back to at least one of the spacecrafts quickly shrinking in the distance.

No such luck however.  While the force of the magnets managed to at least halt his spinning, he had already flown too far.  Though he was no longer flying headlong into empty space, he wasn’t moving any closer either.

He was stuck.  And worse yet, his lungs were beginning to burn.

_“~We see you Gon~”_ said Leorio through the buzzing static.  _“Hold on, we’re trying to pull away, but that last shot wrecked our engines.”_ Gon couldn’t respond, but he could see the stuttering coronas of cobalt light as the _Paladiknight_ ’s engines fought for propulsion.  

As the two ships in the distance continued to fire back at one another, Gon’s focus drifted to the planet below, and he had to admit that at the very least it was a stroke of luck that he wasn’t caught in Zaban’s gravity.  

Gon’s vision was beginning to grey at the edges when the tide of battle took and abrupt turn.  Though it was difficult to make out, Gon saw something small and fast pierce through the hull of the pirate’s cruiser just before the whole thing cracked open like a giant egg.  A mute explosion blew the ship apart, sending the _Paladiknight_ into another barreling roll as whatever weapon it was came to a stop on the satellite. 

There was starting to be more grey than not, Gon wondered if maybe this was how it ended.  It wasn’t a bad way, he supposed- his lips parted in a quiet exhale, he couldn’t hold it any longer.  But he couldn’t help feeling a little… disappointed? Angry even, maybe. There was more he needed to do.  He’d promised.

Far, far away.  In the tiny pinprick of vision he still had, Gon picked out something moving at incredible speeds.  Something white and shining. Almost like a shooting star. He reached for it, remembering Aunt Mito’s stories of how such things could grant your deepest wishes.

… _Ging._

Everything felt cold and numb, like Gon had been covered in thick layers of cotton.  But even through the black veil that had fallen over his vision, he felt something hard and solid latch around his middle.  Everything turned on its axis, and Gon was flying.

“Hey, you still alive?”

Gon couldn’t answer.  Even as the rush of speed faded and the cold leached from his limbs.  Something reminiscent of fingers wrapped itself around his helmet and tore it loose, flooding Gon’s lungs with cool, sweet oxygen.  

“Gon!”  That was Kurapika, and as sensation made its way back to Gon’s awareness, he felt the cool metal of the _Paladiknight’s_ grating beneath his fingertips and pressed against his cheek.  He opened his mouth to answer and his whole body shook with rasping coughs.

A large, spindly hand that could only belong to Leorio set itself against the plane of his back.  “Keep coughing,” said Leorio. “You need to melt the ice in your lungs.”

He did just that, dry heaving onto the floor before he managed to open his eyes and actually look around.  He peeked up to see Leorio and Kurapika hovering above him. Under his blond fringe, Gon could see Kurapika’s normally grey eyes taking on a crimson ring.  Barely under control.

“Guys,” he said.  “What- what happened?”  

Leorio looked about to answer, when something out of Gon’s view snatched his attention.  The older boy pushed up his ill-fitting spectacles and stood to his feet while Kurapika helped Gon to stand.

His legs kind of felt like jelly, but he managed it.

“Well,” a voice Gon didn’t recognize said, tone bored with a clearly modified pitch.  “You and those jerks wrecked my pod so… figured I’d ask what gives.” Gon pulled away from Kurapika’s supporting arm and turned.

The ship’s hull had been torn open. A cavernous strip, torn into the side of the _Paladiknight_ that opened the ship up to the star-studded expanse of space.  All that kept the interior from immediate depressurization was the shimmering blue shell cast by the ship’s shield generators.  That must have been how Gon made it back inside so quickly. And as his focus drifted, he realized how he’d crossed the distance. 

Bare feet firmly planted on the floor, white hair laying in soaked, limp strands, and arms dangling at ease by his sides, the boy from the pod stood a fair distance from the rest of the group.  Pale body framed in dramatic contrast by the hole in the ship.  

“You!”  Gon pointed in the boy’s direction, brain temporarily casting aside the fact that the boy was wearing nothing but boxers and not an inch of protective gear.  “You’re the boy from the pod!” Then he remembered the dull ache in the back of his head. “Are you the one that hit me?”  

The white-haired boy’s expression was empty but his eyes mildly curious as he cocked his head.  “Yeah, I thought you were dead, but guess not. Impressive. Suppose I should kill you though, no one’s supposed to know about this place.”

Despite what he said, Gon didn’t really feel much hostility coming off the other boy, and ignored the threat.  The others however, were not so carefree. Leorio shifted back, raising an arm to push Gon behind him while Kurapika stepped forward, slipping the two plasma blades free from his belt.  He slid into a ready stance.

One white eyebrow arched.  “You really want to take me on?” said the boy, not taking his eyes off Gon.  He went so far as to even take a step to the right when Leorio shifted to try and hide Gon from the boy’s sight.

Kurapika shifted forward, expression grim.  “I saw what you did to those pirates, their ship.  I won’t let that happen here.”

“Oh that?”  The pale boy’s face cracked into a nasty grin and he lifted one hand, flexing the wrist and elbow.  For the first time, Gon noticed that both were covered past the wrist in dried blood. “Yeah, they weren’t really all that impressive.  You though,” he caught Gon’s eye. “I saw what you did to the station doors. Not bad, what’s your designation?”

“Designation?”

Leorio made a quiet, uncomfortable noise and startled a bit.  Gon was curious as to why, but didn’t think it was the time to ask.  Kurapika too, looked even more ill at ease if that was possible. “You mean my name?” said Gon.  “It’s Gon!” Never one to forget the manners Aunt Mito had furiously instilled, Gon pulled free of Leorio, stepped past Kurapika and took the boy’s blood-encrusted hand in his.  “What’s yours?”

Something he’d done seemed to catch the as of yet unflappable boy off guard.  Azure eyes blew wide, and for a moment the slender, surprisingly smooth hand sat limp in his before Gon felt the other boy’s fingers curl around his palm.  

“My designation is K3-11A Elimination Protocol.”  And now that Gon was fully paying attention, he could tell.  The boy’s voice was definitely modified. Rasping with a metallic echo, like normal human vocal cords were grating against an artificial vocoder.  

“K3-1-um…” Gon grimaced as he tried to recall the string of numbers and letters the boy had rattled off.  The boy frowned back, the fingers released themselves from his grip, but Gon held on. Their introduction wasn’t done.  Then it came to him. “How about I just call you Killua?”

“ _Gon_!” Kurapika hissed at him over his shoulder.  Gon ignored him.  

“It’s easier to say than, K-whatever you just said.  I mean, if that’s okay with you.”

Gon was pretty sure that if the boy’s head tilted to the side any more, it might get stuck that way.  “...sure. I guess, if you want.” The boy’s eyes darted away. But if Gon wasn’t mistaken, the hand in his gripped back again.  He shook it once. Firm and solid.

“Then it’s nice to meet you, Killua.  Thanks for saving me!”

“Hm?  It’s not that big a deal, I just did it because I was curious and felt like it.”

Gon released their hands and watched as Killua let it fall back to his side.  A hand clamped down on his shoulder and tugged.

“Gon, get back,” it was Leorio.  “Don’t you remember? He just said he was going to kill us.”

Oh yeah.  “Are you really?” he asked.

The boy -Killua- lifted his shoulders and let them fall in a lazy shrug, bloody hands settling on his hips.  “Well on second thought,” he said, that unsettling grin back on his face as his focus shifted from Gon to the older boy behind him.  “Since you guys are the reason my ride’s busted. Maybe I’ll just hitch a ride with you.”

“What!?”

“No way!” 

“Really?  Cool!” Gon hadn’t really had a chance to hang out with another boy his age since he’d joined up with the _Paladiknight_ and left Whale Island.  Ignoring the other two crew members’ abortive protests he gripped Killua by the arm and tugged him deeper into the ship.  “You can room with me. Come on, let me show you around!”

“Gon, you can’t be serious!” said Leorio, who’s voice faded as he pulled Killua around a corner and towards the crew quarters.

Anticipation welled up in Gon’s chest.  This was the last thing he’d expected to find on that floating station.  But he had to admit, as he felt Killua fall into step behind him, it was a pleasant surprise.


End file.
